Aaron Abada, on Behalf of Himself and All Others Similarly Situated v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., a California Corporation

This appeal presents the question of whether we have appellate jurisdiction over a district court order remanding to state court a class action suit alleging that a securities broker misled its customers concerning the capabilities of its on-line investment system. We dismiss for lack of appellate jurisdiction.

I

In 1996, Charles Schwab, Inc., (“Schwab”) became the first major securities broker to allow its customers to conduct securities transactions over the internet. By November 1998, Schwab was the largest provider of on-line brokerage services. Schwab’s growth in the on-line trading market was fueled by a marketing and advertising campaign that extolled its on-line trading service as convenient, fast, and efficient. For example, Schwab’s Online Investing Brochure stated:

Aaron Abada opened an account with Schwab in November 1998, allegedly in reliance on Schwab’s representations that Schwab would provide fast, high quality executions, which Abada says he reasonably understood to mean immediate order executions at the best prices available.

Abada alleges that Schwab’s on-line system was, in fact, somewhat limited at the time: that its systems could only support 4%…